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Wow, the difference between the US and Canada is a surprise, in particular the opioid overdoses and road accidents. I am a US->Canada transplant, and the cultu

Wow, the difference between the US and Canada is a surprise, in particular the opioid overdoses and road accidents. I am a US->Canada transplant, and the cultural and economic differences here just don’t seem that stark. Yes, there is universal health care, obviously…but there is definitely not an abundance of easily available mental health care here, especially outside the major metro areas. And the health care in the most economically disadvantaged areas (First Nations reservations) certainly isn’t platinum care. Really, the road deaths chart stands out to me. Canada is very car centric, and huge, and full of plenty of large animals to hit. I simply cannot hazard a guess as to why it’s that different.

julienb_sea 6y ago
There are dramatically more high density, high risk driving environments in the US versus Canada. I could also make some questionable generalizations about Canadian drivers versus US drivers.
- perardi 6y ago
  And Torontonians could make questionable generalizations about Brampton drivers. Though, now that I think about it, residential street speed limits are way lower here.
- quicklime 6y ago
  Is this true? It seems like Canadians drive less than Americans do, which I'm guessing is because Canadians live and drive in higher-density environments where they can make shorter trips and kill fewer people along the way: https://internationalcomparisons.org/environmental/transportation/ https://internationalcomparisons.org/environmental/transport... Just eyeballing it, it looks to me like the death rate from road accidents in each country correlates strongly with vehicle-kilometers driven per capita. Americans die at a higher rate because they spend more time on the roads covering more distance.
  - perardi 6y ago
    Excellent catch. And that makes some sense. A huge percentage of the country lives in a fairly narrow band near the US border in large cities. With not a lot of driving to other cities. Because they’re too far away.
dragonsky 6y ago
Is the need for Mental Health care in Canada reduced due to a more relaxed, less frantic lifestyle?
apta 6y ago
The US has around 9x the population of Canada.

julienb_sea 6y ago

There are dramatically more high density, high risk driving environments in the US versus Canada. I could also make some questionable generalizations about Canadian drivers versus US drivers.

perardi 6y ago
And Torontonians could make questionable generalizations about Brampton drivers. Though, now that I think about it, residential street speed limits are way lower here.
quicklime 6y ago
Is this true? It seems like Canadians drive less than Americans do, which I'm guessing is because Canadians live and drive in higher-density environments where they can make shorter trips and kill fewer people along the way: https://internationalcomparisons.org/environmental/transportation/ https://internationalcomparisons.org/environmental/transport... Just eyeballing it, it looks to me like the death rate from road accidents in each country correlates strongly with vehicle-kilometers driven per capita. Americans die at a higher rate because they spend more time on the roads covering more distance.
- perardi 6y ago
  Excellent catch. And that makes some sense. A huge percentage of the country lives in a fairly narrow band near the US border in large cities. With not a lot of driving to other cities. Because they’re too far away.

dragonsky 6y ago

Is the need for Mental Health care in Canada reduced due to a more relaxed, less frantic lifestyle?

apta 6y ago

The US has around 9x the population of Canada.